The Newseum — a journalism museum in Washington, D.C. — announced in a statement Monday that it would “re-evaluate” its decision to honor two Hamas-funded cameramen as a part of permanent memorial in the facility:
Serious questions have been raised as to whether two of the individuals included on our initial list of journalists who died covering the news this past year were truly journalists or whether they were engaged in terrorist activities.
We take the concerns raised about these two men seriously and have decided to re-evaluate their inclusion as journalists on our memorial wall pending further investigation.
Terrorism has altered the landscape in many areas, including the rules of war and engagement, law, investigative and interrogation techniques, and the detention of enemy combatants. Journalism is no exception.
To further our First Amendment mission to provide a forum where all may speak freely, the Newseum will establish a new initiative to explore differing views on the new questions facing journalism and journalists.
On Friday, the Newseum said it would stand by its decision to include Mahmoud Al-Kumi and Hussam Salama — two cameramen who worked for Al-Aqsa Television, a Hamas-funded network — on the memorial wall.
“Hussam Salama and Mahmoud Al-Kumi were cameramen in a car clearly marked ‘TV.’ The Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders and The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers all consider these men journalists killed in the line duty,” a Newseum spokesman said last week.
Al Aqsa Television is considered a terrorist organization by the United States government.